A gift. In a basket

I tend to enjoy giving gifts. Preferably of the handmade kind. 

Haters call it cheap. I call it thoughtful. And awesome.

I mean, anyone can go to the store and and buy a gift. It just feels more special when you make it yourself, ya know? 

Unfortunately, I haven't had time lately to make many gifts {let me tell ya folks, my first year of teaching kicked.my.butt. Thank the Lord that's over!!} Due to my love of hand made gifts and predicted lack of time, I actually even considered making a whole slew of Christmas gifts this summer. 

But lets be honest, that's probably not gonna happen.

Anyway, back to the gift. There's a girl at my church getting married this summer, so of course there was a shower {man I loved my church shower!}. I don't really know the girl that well, but honestly I don't know anyone in GC that well {except my husband. I know him verrry well. But enough about that! ;)} 

So... in an effort to be friendly, I wanted to attend said shower. With a gift. Obviously. 

As I was going through my craft supplies, brainstorming what this gift would entail, I just so happened to find an apron. This apron was once intended to become a Christmas gift, but was never delivered {aprons were my handmade gift of choice a couple years back}. 

Now, if I'm honest, there were reasons said apron was never delivered... the layers were kind of off and it was just missing something. But fear not, it could be salvaged. 

A bit of layer tweaking and a cute bow later, the apron was fixed. 

Normally, for time-crunched Jamie, this apron would be a full-fledged gift, but it's summer break folks! Time is not an issue {hallelujah!}. 

So the pondering continued. And my brain started thinking in gift basket mode {gift baskets were my handmade gift of choice several years back, and I loved making them so much I considered turning it into a career... stay tuned for that}. 

The question is, what goes really great with a cute apron? 

Cookies! duh.

It was obvious that cookies {in a jar} must accompany the basket.

I decided on Cowgirl Cookies {from Bakerella} and Chocolate Lovers Cookies {from here}. I've never had either of these cookies, so hopefully they taste ok... my only judging criteria was that the layers looked pretty together.

But I mean, if the layers look pretty, surely they taste awesome, right?! Right.

Here's a close up of one of the tags, in case you're nosey like me. :)

And why not throw in a rolling pin for good measure? Great idea! 

After stuffing the basket full of goodies I wrapped it in cellophane and tied it off with more twine. But really, the cellophane kind of made it less pretty, so I'll save you from that picture. 

There it is ladies: a gift, in a basket. Make one for your friends! And if you do, send me a picture, I'd love to see how they turn out!